


rest now

by Pierulestheworld



Category: PIERCE Tamora - Works, Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-18 12:42:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28867194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pierulestheworld/pseuds/Pierulestheworld
Summary: A moment after Neal's Ordeal.
Relationships: Yukimi noh Daiomoru/Nealan of Queenscove
Comments: 1
Kudos: 15





	rest now

Neal woke to soft knocking on the door. He got up, prepared to dish out some sharp remarks at whoever was waking him up only several hours after his Ordeal, but every word died on his tongue when he opened the door.

Yuki stood there, looking small. She was short in stature, yes, but she never looked _small,_ not in the way she did then.

Neal wordlessly held the door open in invite, and Yuki took measured steps into his room, head lowered. When Neal sat on his bed, and indicated that she should too, she nodded politely and sat a respectful arms distance away from him.

They stared at each other.

“I am,” Yuki began, then closed her mouth. She had no idea how to articulate, in Common or Yamani, exactly how she felt. She tried again. “I am—immensely relieved—to see you are. Fine.”

The words were an understatement, but the unsure pauses and the unguarded look in her eyes as she stared up at Neal told him exactly what she meant. He delicately took her hands in his, and this seemed to cause an uncharacteristic avalanche to spill from her mouth.

“I had been at several of the previous Ordeals, and I—every time they come out so, so distressed looking, I cannot begin to even imagine what they could be put through. What you would be put through. The Ordeals I attended before, none of the men I knew, and I felt like a—a sightseer although that was not my intention, but I couldn’t resist going.

“Two years ago, I was there when they pulled the beautiful boy, Joren, out of the Chamber, dead. They carried him passed me. He did not look like any of the others that had come out of the room, he looked asleep. All I could imagine for the past week was that you would come from that Chamber changed or, or dead. That you would be that still. Even thinking it made me burst into tears, yet I couldn’t tell the Queen and the Princess what was wrong, I didn’t know how. I was so scared, Neal. I was _so_ scared.”

The two were unusually subdued in the charged atmosphere. Yuki, for all her Yamani upbringing, always had a lively glint in her eye that made even her polite mask seem jovial. Neal always had that intelligent look about him, the one that always got him trouble for his comments. Both were missing their usual sparks as they stared at each other; or perhaps their usual sparks had been transformed into something else, something new.

Neal said nothing as she rambled, just held her hands and gently rubbed a soothing circle with his thumb on her palm. When she finished, breathing heavily from emotion, staring at him with eyes full of love and relief and pain and fear and hope, he spoke.

“After my knighting tonight,” he said in a tone that seemed to reveal the fact that he didn’t quite believe his fool’s quest to knighthood was almost over, “I’ll formally introduce you to my parents. I’ll ask my father to make an official betrothal between us. Is that something you would want?”

“All I want is to be by your side,” Yuki told him quietly, intensely, the connection between her eyes and his still not yet broken.

Neal let out a ragged breath and surged forward to clutch Yuki to his chest in a crushing hug. “Yuki, I love you.”

She clutched him desperately back. “I love you, too.”

They held each other like that for several moments. Neal drew back first to cup Yuki’s face with one hand, his other hand still holding hers. “I—I love you.” He smiled, some of his usual glint coming back into his eyes. “I can’t remember what else I was going to say, your passion and beauty has overwhelmed me.”

Yuki giggled, her own mischievous look coming back to her. “Sometimes the briefest sentences say the most.”

“And the most ephemeral of moments are the most beautiful,” he agreed as he leaned down to kiss her sweetly.

She smiled into the kiss and continued to smile as Neal abruptly pulled away to yawn loudly. He grinned ruefully at her amused look.

“You know, I was ready to say some very insulting things to whoever had woken me up until I saw that you were the one blessing my doorway.”

Yuki bowed her head in mock demureness, her eyes lively as she looked at Neal from under her lashes. “I am so glad you have decided to spare my humble self from what surely would have been a very coherent rant.”

Neal’s laugh turned into another yawn. Yuki fought down an urge to yawn herself as she had not slept much the night before either. As she put a hand to her mouth to fight down the yawn, Neal lightly cleared his throat.

“It would be considered slightly improper, but would you mind staying with me when I sleep?” He hurried to clarify when her eyes widened in shock. “Not—any of that. Not what you’re thinking. Just.” He blushed slightly and ran a hand through his perpetually disorderly hair. “My sleep earlier was very light. Usually when I’m sleeping in a real bed, I wouldn’t have heard anyone knock. There’s just some—dreams. I thought, maybe if I had someone with me, was holding someone as I fell asleep….”

She gave in to his harried look and was the one to grab his hands this time. “It is improper, but I don’t mind.”

Neal’s smile was worth any potential scandal that could come from someone seeing them in a bed together, even if they were both clothed.

As he made to lay down, she hesitated briefly, then untied her obi from her kimono. Even briefly lying down with the stiff obi and its large bow would be uncomfortable. Yuki wouldn’t be able to tie the bow in the back as well by herself as she could with a maid helping her, but it would look fine to anyone not of the Yamani Isles, and Yuki knew Princess Shinkokami and Haname wouldn’t judge.

Neal opened his arms, once again inviting her towards him, and she made herself comfortable. He pressed a quick kiss into her hair, before sighing and holding her tight. Yuki closed her eyes and listened as his breathing fell into the even falls of sleep.

Soon, once she was sure he was in a deep sleep, she would clumsily tie her obi back on and slip away as quietly as possible as to not get caught, but for now she rested in her love’s arms.

**Author's Note:**

> So this is literally like -checks- 3 years old lol I've been meaning to post it for forever, but I kept forgetting. I have a few other tortall fics, but they're mainly oc related stuff (or characters that are basically oc's lol) and one fic that is maybe 35% finished at 5k words so who knows on that one lol
> 
> I don't particularly remember why I wrote this one. I think I just wanted to do some sort of experimentation and also try my hand at writing romance (not one of my strong points even now lol). Hope you all liked it! (ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧


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